The Strategy Game Engine Wiki
Welcome to the The Strategy Game Engine Wiki This is Official Wiki of the Strategy Game Engine (PC - Windows). This is a game created by Liquid Otter . You can find us by email or in Twitter. Tags Some relevant tags: #4x, #rpg, #strategy, #hexagonal, #turnbased, #diplomacy, #combat, #moddable, #fantasy, #liquidotter About copyright and trademarking The showcase used in this wiki uses copyrighted names and conceptions (mainly from The Lord of the Rings, copyrighted and trademarked by Middle Earth Enterprises and Tolkien Estate , so it WON'T be included with the release of the game. It's merely used during the alpha&beta stages to test the logic and functionality. Some screenshots have been included here just for giving more clarity to the instructions and will be removed eventually. A brand-new scenario called "The Fate of Moravia" will be included, and of course, the possibility of modding your own scenarios. At the same time, some external art has been included (with purchased rights). Nation backgrounds, some armies cards and character sprites are also external, and being used for test purporses. This art is also going to be completely replaced with the final release. If you are an artist or illustrator, and you consider we are violating your copyright or trademark, please let us know by email info@liquidotter.com. Remember this game is still not distributed anywhere except by a several people closed beta, it's for test purposes and it will be 100% free. If you want to give us rights or you want to see your art in the game and/or want to contribute somehow, please also write to info@liquidotter.com About this Wiki These are instructions for the Strategy Game Engine, a new indie PC game that comes with the possibility of creating and modding scenarios (terrain, cities, armies, characters, encounters, spells, etc.). The game is turn-based, with a hexagonal board, and a 4X philosophy. To better understand the power of this game, we have created a Show Case scenario based on "The Lord of the Rings", that IS NOT included in the game due to copyright and trademark issues. The game includes a "The Fate of Moravia" scenario that works similarly, but its power relies on the potential of creating new scenarios only editing text files (see "Modding"). Stage of development On the 23th of October, the game is prepared to a closed alpha test, that will be carried out in CICE. After that, the following stages are planned: 1) Revision of all included art in the game with "unknown" copyright. All copyrighted art and art without authorship will be removed to a second close alpha test. 2) A kickstarter project will be open to gather funds to pay designers o replace copyrighted art. 3) Some screens will be redesigned before the second alpha. 4) Some new functionality will be added. 5) Kickstarter contributors will get the second alpha version of the game to play, and will get the possibility of changing things in the game with their feedback. 6) With the feedback and new art we release and open alpha version. Technical requirements Since it's an indie game with not a high graphic complexity, the game only requires 4GB of RAM (probably it can run even with less). Architecture requirements: * Windows x64 - x86 * PC Installation Planned to be released as a free game in the following closed betas via Direct Sending with donations in Kickstarter, Direct Download when the game is stable and finally, via Steam. Objectives The objective of the game is to achieve one of the possible victories: * Total victory: Only available achieving some event (in the Lord of the Rings showcase, it's achieving by moving the One Ring to Barad-Dur hex @ 2334) * Relative victory: Destroying all the enemy factions or gathering the biggest amount of Victory Points in the game; * Victory: Your team has won, but you didn't achieve neither a Total nor a Relative victory; At the beginning of the game, a notification with the Victory Conditions will be shown. Take a look at the Victory Points section on the top bar to see your progress to Relative Victory. Game Timing As a strategy game per turns, it can take from hours to some days. Main Menu After the loading screen, click on: * Scenarios, to load the scenarios installed in the Installation Directory/StreamingAssets. ** Then, select an scenario from the list (it's a scroll list) and click on the round arrow button on the right side. Or click back to go back to the first screen. ** The Scenarios Menu will open up. * Settings: to configure some options of the game * Credits: to check for art / code licenses and contributors of the game * Exit: Close the game Choosing a scenario After the loading screen, your scenario will be already loaded. You will see, like in the Main Menu, different options: *'Start a scenario'. Clicking here, you will go to the nations available in the MHNation.xml scenario configuration in /StreamingAssets **Click on any nation of the scroll list to see nation leader and description. **Click on "Start" to start the game. * Settings: to configure some options of the scenario * Credits: to check for art / code licenses and contributors of the scenario * Back: Go to the Main Screen. Here is an example of a nation created for the Lord of the Rings showcase (not included in the game because of trademark and copyright issues): Game Instructions Move across the map using the keyboard arrows or WASD The Interface *Top panel: Here you will find, from left to right: **'Gold (Income)': The gold you have and the positive or negative revenue of your nation. Hover on it to see Nation details (taxes, costs, income...) **'Victory Points': The Victory Points you have right now. They can change during the game. If you reach some amount of points, you will be prompted to finish the game with a relative or absolute victory (moddable via XML). **'Next event turn': Turns left to the next game event (moddable via XML). **'Players thinking': All players think during the same time spot as you. The only difference is that you can also execute orders, and they will first plan (strategy turn) and then execute them (execution turn) sequentially after your have played. **'Tile': Shows the tile you are hovering on **'Date/Time': Shows the turn, the year and the season of the game (moddable via XML). **'MiniMap:' Shows a fully 2D minor scale strategy version of the map, with icons **'Menu': (to leave the game, for instance) *'Left panel': A scroll panel with all your available characters. Click on any of the characters to select him/her.The red circle around the character shows his/her health. The helmet icon shows that the character is an army commander. If the background has a pink smoke behind, it means the character is selected. If the background of the button is transparent, the character has no AP (Action Points) left. *'Right panel': A scroll panel with notifications. Hover to see details. Left click to go to the tile. Right click to discard the message. *'Bottom panel': Details all you need to know about your selected Character / City / Army. In addition, it shows the other characters detected at hex (own, friendly or enemy). **'Character section': Shows the image of the character, the name, his/her stats (commander - agent - emissary - mage abilities, health, stealth, challenge... Read more about this in "Characters" section below).(moddable) **'City section': Shows the name, the production and the stores of the city, as well as the crafting stored in the city (armour, weapons, etc.)(moddable) **'Army section': Shows the amount of troops of all available kinds. Hover to see the description of the unit. Each Nation has its own troops illustrations (moddable) **'Characters detected section': Shows the characters detected at hex. All own and friendly characters will be detected, and only some enemies (depending on stealth and if they attempted something in your city) will be shown. **'New turn': Finish your turn and starts executing Non-Human players orders. Characters Characters are the main component of the game. They can issue orders. You need at least one Commander to continue playing, otherwise you will be defeated. There are 4 kinds of characters: Commanders, Agents, Emissaries and Mages. However, a character can be mixed, having abilities of any kind. The level of each ability goes from 0 to 100 (can reach more than 100 with artifacts). The roles of each character are selected when he / she is created (it must have at least 10 points of the role). Starting characters are completely moddable. Combinations up to 3 roles are available (Com/Mag/Age, Com/Age, Com/Mag, Mag/Age, Emi/Mag, etc.). Moreover, each character has: *'Health' *'Stealth': Possibility of issuing orders against enemies without being detected/tracked *'Challenge': Points of "strength". Used for duels, encounters, battles... *'Movement left': Depending on several factors - if it's an army commander, if it's a cavalry army commander, if he/she has moved, etc. The default movement rate is 6. Non-arm commanders ignore the tile cost for movement (it's always 1), so characters can move up to 6 tiles. Even more, they can pick up a transport ship automatically for travelling across sea tiles. Commanders Commanders are able to: *'Hire' armies, increase troops, reduce troops, disband armies; *'Train' armies; *'Attack' armies and Population Centers; *Create fortifications and docks, increase / reduce them; *Change taxes; *Name a new commander ( with a max. ability of commander equal to the the naming character level, up to 40 if the Nation has a special ability ) *Name a new character of any kind (with a max. ability of 30 for any ability) Agents Agents are able to: *'Steal' money; *'Sabotage' production / stores in an enemy PC; *'Scout' the area (present hex and surroundings), getting information in form of notifications; *'Assassinate'; *'Guard' a PC (reducing the chances that enemies have in their attempts against a friendly PC); *'Guard a Char' (reducing the chances that enemies have in their attempts against a friendly char); *Name a new agent ( with a max. ability of agent equal to the the naming character level, up to 40 if the Nation has a special ability ) Emissaries Emissaries are able to: *'Increase loyalty' (in case a PC is discontent) *'Decrease loyalty' (of an enemy PC, to try to bring it to riots) *'Increase size' of an own PC *Create a new Population Center *'Bribe' a character (to bring it to your side) *'Double' a Character to get information about his/her position and make his/her orders against you fail *'Uncover secrets' (information about other nations, characters, armies, artifacts, encounters. Be careful, it can be manipulated!) *'Spread rumors' (manipulates the secrets other nations can get from you, with misleading information) *Name a new emissary ( with a max. ability of emissary equal to the the naming character level, up to 40 if the Nation has a special ability ) Mages *'Prentice magic' (to increase mage level) *'Research a new spell' *'Cast a spell' *Name a new mage ( with a max. ability of mage equal to the the >naming character level, up to 40 if the Nation has a special ability ) Generic In addition to their special abilities depending on roles, all characters can: *'Move (available at the first generic panel)' *'Sell resources to caravans from city' *'Sell a percentage of nation resources to caravans' *'Craft items (armour, weapons) for armies' *'Transport a percentage of nation resources to current city' *'Check for encounters at hex' *'Look for an artifact at hex' *'Issue a duel to a non army-commander player at hex' *'Refuse a duel' *'Disband' Character movement Character movement is shown using blue hexes Characters have a movement of 6 (that can be boosted by spells and / or artifacts), and ignore the terrain costs. Armies Armies movement is shown using green hexes Only commanders can hire armies. Armies are shown in the map with a banner with the flag of your nation, what can be modified with just editing or replacing it with your own images (see Modding section). Armies movement depends on the terrain tiles: *'Sea / Coast:' 1, but the army must have transport ships (be careful, travelling across the sea can lead to shipwrecks) *'Plain / Coast:' 1 *'Hills': 2 *'Forest': 3 *'Mountain': 4 (you can't cross from mountain to mountain without a road) *'Swamp': 4 Some features modify these values: *'Road': removes 1/2 of the cost of the tile (min: 1) and makes possible to go from mountain to mountain *'Minor River': Adds +2 to the cost of the movement from origin tile to target tile *'Major Rivers': Make impossible to cross the tile unless you have transport ships in the army. *'Bridges': Removes the cost of Minor Rivers and make crossing major rivers possible. If you find an enemy army at hex, your army will stop. Combat Combat can be of two kinds: *'Duels': Non-army characters fighting with each other. One of them will die, the other will suffer injuries. Use the "Issue Duel" ability if you are in an hex with a tracked enemy you think you can win. *'Battles': Combat among armies. One of them will die, the other will suffer troop loses, but will get a morale and train boost. When you start a combat, a panel with two wheels will appear. To all the statistics from both sides (troops, abilities, terrain, climate, train, challenge, what it may concern), the game adds some luck and some gambling. If you see icons in the panels called "Drag boosts to wheel", you can distribute positive and negative effects represented by icons to the wheel. The possible boosts or effects are: * From artifacts: combat bonuses * From training (only armies): bad or good training will affect positively or negatively your army o your oponent's. * From morale (only armies): bad or good morale will affect positively or negatively your army o your oponent's. * From food (only armies): if your nation is bad fed, this will affect negatively your army. Distribute your effects dragging and dropping them into your wheel. Do the same with your opponent. Different strategies are possible: combine good and bad effects in the same wheel number cell in case you want to balance the negative effects; distribute the boosts evenly, or accumulate several in the same cell to get a super boost. It's up to you. Selecting a character and issuing orders You can select a character by: # Clicking on his / her left panel button. # Clicking on the tile he is on (but if there are more characters, you will have to switch them one by one) A circular menu panel with buttons will automatically open around the character. The first panel shows the group of abilities (commander, agent, emissary, mage, generic) and finish turn. If you click on any of the groups, a new circular menu will be opened, in 180 or 360º with the abilities of each group. Some of them will have the "not available" icon, that mean your character doesn't meet the requirements. Selecting one of them will issue the order. You can come back to the first generic circular menu of group of abilities by clicking on the center button. Population centers Cities are the main source of resources, troops and income. The bigger the PC is, the more troops you can recruit and the more income from taxes it produces. However, the resources amount decreases with every level, so the revenue from selling them to caravans or crafting is also reduced. Cities can have different sizes: camp (size 1), village (size 2), town (size 3), major town (size 4), city (size 5). You can recruit from Population centers the following number of troops: *'Camp': 100 troops of any kind per turn *'Village': 200 troops of any kind per turn *'Town': 300 troops of any kind per turn *'Major town:' 400 troops of any kind per turn *'City': 500 troops of any kind per turn Income per turnfrom Population centers with a tax rate of 100%: *'Camp': 100 Gold *'Village': 250 Gold *'Town': 500 Gold *'Major town': 750 Gold *'City': 1000 Gold Resources obtained from tile depending on PC size: *'Camp': 100% *'Village': 75% *'Town': 50% *'Major town': 25% *'City': 10% Economy Sources of money: You start with a 40% tax rate for all your PCs (take a look at the income in the PC section above). The higher the taxes are, the more income you get, but the more discontent your citizens will be. Maintenance costs: y'''ou pay for: *Troops *Constructions (fortifications and docks) *Characters abilities In the top panel you can see the gold your nation has and the income in brackets. If you can't maintain your nation (gold comes to less than 0 with a negative income), your taxes will automatically increase, and the loyalty of your cities decrease. Low loyalty in cities can lead to disband. If your taxes have reached 100% and you still can't pay the dues, the following steps will be carried out: *Your troops will disband; *Your constructions will be destroyed; *Your characters will disband; If your nations loses all the commanders or all the population centers with population more than 3 (major town or city), you will be defeated. A way to avoid bankruptcy is to keep minor characters issuing "nation sell to caravans" orders. Orders You can issue 2 orders per turn for each character, with the restrictions that you can't issue two special abilities of the same role (commander, agent, etc.). '''Important! Once you have moved, you won't be able to move again. Generic orders have no restrictions, but some of them can't be repeated each turn or have other restrictions. Your orders will be executed immediately, while AI nations first plan they turn (strategy turn) and then act (execution turn). The orders executed by characters are shown in the Character panel of the bottom-right corner. Encounters There are several encounters (moddable) hidden all across the world. Use the generic ability "Encounters" to investigate local encounters at hex. Be careful, not all encounters have a positive outcome! Artifacts There are lots of artifacts (moddable) hidden in the tilex of the world. Use the generic ability "Search Artifact" to try to retrieve an artifact from the hex. If you have already tracked an artifact (using the spell "Scry Artifact" or with rumours), you will retrieve it automatically. On the left-bottom corner panel, click on the character circular button to open the inventary. Then, drag and drop items to wear them, or right click on them. Artifacts can be used by characters to boost their abilities and improve results in combat, by dragging them to the combat wheel during a combat event. More specifically, then can: *Improve abilities (commander, agent, emissary, mage); *Improve character's movement; *Improve armies movement; *Give boosts in the combat wheel (if you have luck and the place where you have dragged the artifact is selected by the wheel); *Improve stealth; *Improve challenge; Category:Browse